Habits Of Success – From Good To Great

It is about putting your time and energy into things that really matter. Reflect on what habits you have acquired, it will define where you are at this moment no matter if you look at it through wealth or spirituality.

I am involved in the outdoor industry, which includes many aspects concerning outdoor activities. Through my observation, there are certain habits that industry leaders tend to have. Of course, since I am an ‘outdoors person’, I will draw on examples that are related to outdoor activities and how these habits will bring you success.

Developing positive habits is no easy task. For myself, it is about being convinced that certain habits can bring benefits that really matter in the long-run rather than just temporary pleasures.

Habit 1: Identifying What Is Necessary

This habit may seem more like a skill, but if you habitually identify what is necessary before putting forth the time and effort to do it, your efforts will be much more effective. If you put effort into doing something it will not make it certain that things will work out.

In many companies, they often use Critical Success Factors as a yardstick to calibrate what goals to achieve. Critical Success Factors are high-level goals that are critical to an organization’s success that must benefit the company as a whole and be directly linked to a business strategy.

Always remember to review your goals and reconsider your strategies because you may be going in the wrong direction! Don’t lose sight of the big picture, if your goal is to successfully harvest a big game, you need to carve out what outcomes you want for your hunt, knowing how far into the forest you need to go and how many hours you need to wait for getting a clear shot! It’s all about what you prioritize!

Habit 2: Being Able To Focus Your Energy

Having enough drive to do the necessary work and keeping your energy focused on a particular task until it is complete is vital. Having the capability to direct all of your energy towards what is most rewarding and necessary at a given moment is needed.

To be able to focus your energies, 2 things must be developed: (1) You are able to rid yourself of distractions (2) You are able to stick to it no matter how difficult it seems.

Naturally, focus will only be present if distractions are removed from you. Some tips to remove distractions include setting a time block on the ‘ONE THING’. Other methods of staying focused include keeping only the things that are related to the task at hand on your desk and scheduling times for distractions.

As for sticking your energy and attention to something until it gets done, you have no choice but to psychologically prepare yourself. You need to make yourself understand that the task at hand is difficult and that focus is required to complete the task efficiently.

Habit 3: Being Confident In What You Do

There are many factors for you to be confident in what you do. If you are involved in competitive archery and you want to successfully shoot that bull’s eye, you need to be confident in your shot. Confidence as a quality should encompass many aspects of how you do things.

Another way you can look at confidence is trust. There are two ways in which trust can work, trust that what you prioritize would work best in helping you reach your goal and that you can trust yourself when you are performing that task at hand.

The second branch of trust is through performance, engage in the task so that you will gain more confidence in yourself and feel that you are becoming more successful.

In archery, champions forget about all of their past mistakes and are capable of doing what is necessary when they are in the tournament. Because they are confident that they can do it, they will eventually be successful in achieving it.

Habit 4: Being Meticulous

You do not need to churn out everything which you are required to do on a piece of paper, but what you do in regards to achieving your goals must be sufficiently clear or structured.

As you are shooting arrows in a tournament, the best performers usually have a practice plan which they stick to. I know that developing a practice schedule to stick with may sound difficult, but this is the only way to achieve success in a given field.

How can you ease the process? You can refer your problems to a coach which is extremely helpful because they can usually pinpoint your flaws and tune your practice regime to achieve the bigger picture.

In archery, you will not leave out tuning your bow because shooting a bow that is not tuned properly can give you a false impression on how effective your body form is. Hence, you need to identify those basics that you have to get right first, such as developing a regime to tune the bow properly first before practicing form and your shots, once you do that then you can move on to developing other important aspects.

Conclusion

I understand that I have not covered everything that is required for you to be successful, but these are the basics. I believe that these are the main principles that you need to follow to achieve success so that you can go from good to great.

If you can grasp these basics and hold these habits firmly as you pursue your goals, you will succeed.

If you have any ideas or comments you want to make, feel free to do so!